


Fictive Kinship

by incognitajones



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Gen, Uncle Chewie, Young Ben
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-29 02:46:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6355765
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/incognitajones/pseuds/incognitajones
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three moments between Chewbacca and Ben Solo.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fictive Kinship

**Author's Note:**

> I couldn't resist this prompt: http://tfa-kink.dreamwidth.org/1082.html?thread=56634#cmt56634  
> (“I just want to see what Ben/kylo's relationship with Chewbacca looks like.”)
> 
> But as far as I'm concerned, this incredible comic is the last word on Chewie & Ben: http://m.imgur.com/u7HcWOx

1.  
Even if Chewbacca didn’t owe Han a life debt, he wouldn’t be likely to offer the man any advice. Han doesn’t take well to orders, suggestions, or even hints. And amazingly, somehow, out of the entire galaxy, he found a mate even less fond of being told what to do.

So although Chewbacca doesn’t agree with the way the two of them make his nephew feel afraid and ashamed of being angry, he doesn’t say anything—to them.

The People of the Trees appreciate anger, its uses and effects. It’s a tool, like fire; maybe not appropriate for all circumstances, but not without its place. Chewbacca tries to show the cub that, tells him stories of elders who were famous for their temper and for using it to protect their clan.

He shows Ben his claws. “If I used these in anger, it would be dishonorable. So I don’t.” He makes a game out of extending and retracting them as the small, pudgy fingers reach out fearlessly to catch. “But that doesn’t make it wrong for me to be angry.”

“Roar for me, Uncle Chewie?”

He bares his teeth in a grin. “Hold on, short stuff.” He lifts the cub up to his shoulders and roars, feeling the reverberation build up from his belly to chest to throat. Soft fingers dig into the hair on his neck for balance. Ben’s treble voice joins his, screaming in furious delight, and it’s good. 

See, Han? he thinks. Your cub shouldn’t be afraid of this.

2.  
The last time Chewbacca sees a Ben Solo that he recognizes, the cub is nearly, but not quite, full-grown. He’s gawky and grouchy in a way that seems to be universal across all species—at least, it’s familiar from Chewbacca’s own adolescence last century.

Ben has also become as stubborn as his sire and dam, refusing to speak most of the time. Chewbacca spends three days at the Jedi school and the only time he gets more than a grunt out of the kid is when he challenges him to spar hand to hand on the last day. 

He can tell Ben thought he'd have the advantage, but Chewbacca’s size, strength, and decades of experience more than compensate for the boy’s developing Force skills. Inside of five minutes, he’s covered in dirt and incipient bruises from being thrown to the ground. 

After the fourth time Chewbacca puts Ben flat on his back, the kid stays there and thumps his head on the ground in frustration.

“Get mad, Ben!” Chewbacca shouts. “You’re not going to land a shot on me otherwise!”

“I can’t,” he sighs, his head lolling to the side. “Master Skywalker would be _disappointed_.”

But he gets up one more time, breathes deeply, and uses the Force as a stepping stone to launch himself at Chewbacca’s head. Surprised by the sudden vertical elevation, Chewbacca’s slow to react and Ben actually has enough momentum to flip him. They thud to the ground together, Ben’s skinny limbs rolling into a ball as he somersaults and jumps to his feet, laughing. 

“Yes!” He crows, raising his fists in triumph.

Chewbacca hooks one hand around the boy’s ankle, pulls him down and puts him in a headlock, ruffling the short, dusty fur on his head. “Good work, kid.”

3.  
It wasn’t an easy shot, exactly, but it was makeable.

And yet Chewbacca couldn’t take it. Not even after watching his nephew run Han through with a lightsaber like something out of a nightmare, spitting vicious red fire. 

Almost involuntarily his arms jerked down at the last instant, and instead of taking the boy’s head off with his bowcaster he hit him in the flank. The impact still should have knocked him off the catwalk to his death—but he’s definitely grown more powerful in the Force, because it only brought him to his knees.

When he tells Leia, Chewbacca wraps his hands around his head, sinking his fingers into the hair on the back of his neck and pulling in an attempt to anchor his rage. 

“I had the chance to avenge Han!” he shouts. “And I couldn’t do it. I should have killed the boy and put an end to it.” Anger floods through him at the recalled feeling of small naked hands in his fur as Ben tugged him along, eager to show off some new treasure.

Leia’s eyes are streaming with disregarded tears. “If you had, Chewie, part of me would be satisfied. But only part.” She strokes the hair on his arm and even without claws, it feels so much like the way his father used to groom him that it calms some of his temper.

“At least this way, there’s hope. Maybe…” She swallows. “Maybe he’ll come back to us someday.”

**Author's Note:**

> In anthropology, fictive kinship is "the assignment of kinship status to someone who is not related by descent or marriage."


End file.
